Erlang - Binaries

Use a data structure called a binary to store large quantities of raw data. Binaries store data in a much more space efficient manner than in lists or tuples, and the runtime system is optimized for the efficient input and output of binaries.

Binaries are written and printed as sequences of integers or strings, enclosed in double less than and greater than brackets.
Following is an example of binaries in Erlang −

Example

-module(helloworld). 
-export([start/0]). 

start() -> 
   io:fwrite("~p~n",[<<5,10,20>>]), 
   io:fwrite("~p~n",[<<"hello">>]).

When we run the above program, we will get the following result.

Output

<<5,10,20>>
<<"hello">>

Let’s look at the Erlang functions which are available to work with Binaries −

S.No	Methods & Description
1	list_to_binary This method is used to convert an existing list to a list of binaries.
2	split_binary This method is used to split the binary list based on the index position specified.
3	term_to_binary This method is used to convert a term to binary.
4	is_binary This method is used to check if a bitstring is indeed a binary value.
5	binary_part This method is used to extract a part of the binary string
6	binary_to_float This method is used to convert a binary value to a float value.
7	binary_to_integer This method is used to convert a binary value to a integer value.
8	binary_to_list This method is used to convert a binary value to a list.
9	binary_to_atom This method is used to convert a binary value to an atom.